George Calvert

George Calvert (1579-15 April 1632) was Secretary of State of England from 1618 to 1625 and Governor of Newfoundland from 1620 to 1632. Calvert was a trusted adviser to King James I of England and was known to be a brilliant politician, serving as a form of ambassador to Spain and one of the most influential advisers at King James' court; he was given the title of "Lord Baltimore" by James and granted an estate in Ireland. Lord Baltimore was the founder of the province of Maryland, which he intended to serve as an abode of religious freedom; he was himself a Catholic. He died in 1632, and his son Cecil Calvert would seal the charter for Maryland five weeks after his passing. The port of Baltimore, the largest city in Maryland, is named for him.

Biography
George Calvert was born in 1579 in Kiplin, Richmondshire, England to a family of Flemish origin. Calvert attended Trinity College at Oxford and studied foreign languages, studying law in London in 1598. Calvert became a friend of Queen Elizabeth I of England's spymaster Robert Cecil and named his own son Cecil after him, and as Robert Cecil rose under King James I of England, Calvert rose with him. Calvert's skill in foreign languages, legal training, and discretion made up for the fact that he was a Catholic, so Cecil trusted him as his aide. Calvert became one of King James' advisers, and in 1619 King James appointed him as one of his secretaries of state and a commissioner of the treasury, giving him much power. Calvert was pro-Spain during the political crises with the Spanish, and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and the future Charles I of England took more power as James grew old. By 1624, his duties were only placating the Spanish ambassador, so he resigned as Secretary of State. Calvert became Governor of Newfoundland in 1620 and headed to the New World for colonial duties, and in 1629 he arrived in Jamestown to establish a mid-Atlantic region colony. He named this new settlement "Maryland" after Queen Henrietta Maria of France, but he died five weeks before his son Cecil would seal the charter and form the Province of Maryland.